Sovereignty

The Parliament of the Soviet Baltic republic of Estonia voted Wednesday to proclaim Estonian "sovereignty" within the Soviet Union and to give itself the right to veto national legislation before it goes into effect in the republic.

To its credit, the Obama administration has condemned the crackdown on demonstrators in Ukraine and is suggesting that further repression might lead to economic sanctions. There are signs that international support for the protesters, who are calling for a closer relationship with Western Europe, may induce President Viktor Yanukovich to recommit to an association agreement with the European Union that he backed away from under pressure from Russia. Promising efforts also are underway to provide Ukraine with financial aid to enable it to close a deal with the EU. At the same time, U.S. officials are rightly emphasizing that Ukraine can honor its people's European aspirations without rejecting a harmonious relationship with Russia.

Re "State Sues Tribe Over Reporting of Gifts," Sept. 27: I have been an ardent champion of tribal autonomy in the U.S. But I find certain inconsistencies when tribes try to overreach in justifying their "sovereignty." In the case of not acknowledging their obligation to report election contributions to the Fair Political Practices Commission, I contend that they are indeed asserting sovereignty and therefore should be denied the option to contribute, since they are tantamount to a foreign country.

LONDON-- In an escalating spat with Spain over Gibraltar, the tiny British-ruled promontory at the tip of the Iberian peninsula, Britain is considering legal action to confirm its sovereignty over the territory known as The Rock. A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters Monday that the British leader was disappointed following talks last week with his Spanish counterpart, Mariano Rajoy, and diplomatic exchanges between the two countries' foreign ministers. According to reports of the daily briefing to parliamentary correspondents, Cameron was “disappointed by the failure of the Spanish to remove the additional border checks this weekend, and we are now considering what legal action is open to us. This would be an unprecedented step; we want to consider it carefully before making a decision to pursue.” The row has resuscitated long-standing rancor over what many Spaniards see as a vestige of colonialism, though British sovereignty was recognized by the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

Taiwan's leader warned that he might use a new referendum law to call a vote on Taiwan's sovereignty, a move that could test China's threats of force to prevent the island from declaring independence. President Chen Shui-bian's threat caught many in Taiwan by surprise. In the four years since he was elected, Chen had said he would push for formal independence only if China tried to use its massive military to force the island to unify with the mainland.

Chanting "For shame, for shame," thousands of Lithuanians on Monday jammed the center of Vilnius, the capital of the Soviet Baltic republic of Lithuania, to protest the refusal of their Parliament to proclaim Lithuanian "sovereignty" last week.

The Parliament of the Soviet Baltic republic of Lithuania backed away from a direct confrontation with the Kremlin on Friday and postponed a vote on constitutional amendments that would have declared its "sovereignty" and claimed the right to veto national laws there.

Gibraltarians overwhelmingly rejected a British-Spanish plan to share sovereignty of the colony, dealing a setback to London and Madrid's attempts to heal a centuries-old dispute. Nearly 99% of those who voted opposed the idea of Britain giving Spain a share of sovereignty over its colony attached to Spain's southern coast. Gibraltar's chief minister, Peter Caruana, called the referendum after Britain indicated it was in favor of sharing sovereignty.

The Parliament of Soviet Moldavia on Saturday approved a declaration of sovereignty, following the Baltic republics and Russia with the contention that its laws supersede those of the Soviet Union, the official news agency Tass reported. In the Ukraine, the republic's Communist Party congress voted Saturday to support calls for a sovereignty resolution, Tass said. The Ukraine is the second-largest of the Soviet Union's 15 republics and its agricultural and industrial heartland.

Re "Hussein Arraignment Set; Iraq Takes Custody Today," June 30: The Bushies are playing around with the dictionary again. They claim to have turned Saddam Hussein over to Iraqi "control," but he remains in a U.S.-run prison with U.S. guards. President Bush also claims to have given Iraqis back their "sovereignty," but the circumstances do not fit the standard definition of sovereignty. The interim government, chosen by a panel handpicked by the Bush administration, will have no power to amend the constitution that the U.S. occupiers created.

HONG KONG - When Mabel Cheung, one of this city's leading directors, shot her historical-political drama "The Soong Sisters" in China in the mid-1990s, the nature of the exchange for the co-production was simple: Beijing provided inexpensive manpower, and professionals from the British colony's highly developed movie industry provided the expertise. Hong Kong cinema, after all, had been enjoying a golden age for close to two decades - celebrated directors such as John Woo and Wong Kar-wai had helped the city's filmmakers garner a global fan base.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A top U.N. investigator has criticized Washington's drone missile campaign against Islamic militants in Pakistan as a violation of the South Asian nation's sovereignty, a stance that echoes Islamabad's public condemnations of the tactic but not one that is expected to end U.S. airstrikes. Ben Emmerson, U.N. special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, issued a statement Friday saying the U.S. drone campaign “involves the use of force on the territory of another state without its consent, and is therefore a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.” “Pakistan has also been quite clear that it considers the drone campaign to be counter-productive and to be radicalizing a whole new generation,” Emmerson added, “thereby perpetuating the problem of terrorism in the region.” Emmerson's remarks came after he made a three-day visit to Pakistan last week, meeting with top Pakistani officials as well as tribal elders and victims of drone strikes.

Food Sovereignty Tours , a project of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (or Food First) in Oakland, will be traveling to Bolivia on March 9 to 18 to explore Andean food and farming systems. The tour will highlight quinoa grown in the Altiplano region and llamas, a source of meat, wool and transport, as both play a critical role in Andean food security. Participants will visit indigenous food markets, meet quinoa producers to learn about the grain-like crop and how global demand and increasing quinoa production is affecting surrounding soils and wetlands, and become familiar with organizations working with social movements that promote and strengthen food sovereignty.

KABUL, Afghanistan - In talks that are likely to be confrontational, the United States and Afghanistan are scheduled to begin negotiations Thursday on a new security arrangement after U.S. combat troops withdraw from the war-torn country by the end of 2014. The talks, which could last up to a year, will attempt to reach agreement on a new joint arrangement to satisfy the U.S. goal of denying terrorists a base of operations and Afghanistan's demands for sovereignty. They'll start amid a climate of suspicion and mistrust between the two countries.

The massive new bailout approved for Greece early Tuesday should rescue it from immediate bankruptcy. But can the country survive being saved? No matter how you cut it — and plenty is being cut — Greece is still only at the beginning of a long-term retrenchment and reform program that will inflict yet more pain on its people, who have already seen their living standards plummet. The question, analysts say, is whether the country can come out the other side of the process with its democracy, economy and society all intact.

The wartime alliance between Afghanistan and the United States in the last decade has been fraught with suspicions over sharply differing goals and tactics. It is becoming clear that any postwar partnership to prevent a Taliban comeback is likely to be just as problematic. Despite compelling common interests, stark differences already have emerged between Washington and the Afghan government about the military landscape after 2014, when most U.S. combat troops are gone and Afghan security forces are in charge of keeping the country safe.

The legislatures of Georgia and Uzbekistan took cautious steps toward sovereignty on Wednesday but followed a different path than the one blazed by the Baltic republics. These were the latest challenges to face President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who has been offering greater autonomy in an effort to persuade the Soviet Union's increasingly restive republics to remain within the fold.

Tatarstan, an oil-rich republic whose struggle for independence threatened to unravel Russia, has dropped its claim of sovereignty in exchange for a go-ahead from Moscow to manage and trade many of its own resources. The landmark compromise, published here Thursday, was hailed by leaders on both sides as a model for settling Moscow's unstable relations with the 88 constituent parts of the giant, ethnically diverse Russian Federation.

In front of the horse-meat butcher shop she runs with her husband on Rue de la Roquette, Marie-Francoise Peltier reminisced about how things used to be in this enclave of Paris' 11th arrondissement , back when the street was lined with neighborhood boulangeries, cafes and boutiques. "It was like a little village here," she said. In the late 1980s, several struggling textile shops around long, narrow Rue Popincourt were acquired by Chinese importers. They prospered, attracting others who bought out more of the surrounding small businesses that were unable to make ends meet.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announced Saturday that Iraq plans to buy 36 U.S. fighter jets, signaling his intent to seek a long-term American military training presence in the country. But in an indication of the risks for the American military here, a U.S. watchdog group said that Iraq had become more hazardous. "Iraq remains an extraordinarily dangerous place to work," Stuart Bowen, chief of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in a report. "It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago. " The report notes that 44 Iraqi government and security officials have been assassinated since April.